St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1887-10-01
KANSAS EDITORS.
SOME OF THE MEN WHO HAVE
MADE THAT GREAT STATE.
How Comfortable Fortunes Have Been
Acquired Out There Through Pluck and
Energy-The Example of ID. Il. Anthony
and Others Equally Well Known.
tCOpYrighted, lSS7.l

of energy, enterprise and "push.' These
are the editors Of Kansas; men who, in
many cases, have, from the poorest
and most poverty stricken beginnings,
pushed their way against the tide of OPP
position till their indomitable courage
has changed their trials to triumphs.
A notable example among those who
have struggled and triumphed is Colonel
d. r. Anthony, Of the LeavenWorth
Times. In 1876, with few hundred dol
lars-all his little store of wealth-he
purchased the Times, then small affair
with little circulation and less influence
1t was during the deadly depression that
followed the panics of 1873 and the grass
hopper plague of that and the succeed
ing year, when everybody who could get
away from Kansas left, and the prospects
of the State were a long way below par.
With no college education, no ''pull,"
no financial backing, nothing but his
knowledge as a practical printer and his
indomitable Il WILL" Colonel Anthony
entered the fight The struggle was
hard, bitter and illy-paid one for some
time, but the energy Of the man tri
umphed. To-day he is 'power in the
land" The Times has tremendous pO-
litical influence, and is the criterion of
most of the State Its great building
contains one of the best equipped news
paper publishing offices west of st.
Louis, From few hundred dollars
twelve years ago, Colonel Anthony to-
day is worth $500, 900 This sum- be it
remembered, was not made in a great
city, from metropolitan daily, but in
city of about $4,000 inhabitants
The oldest Kansas editor in continued
service and the proprietor Of the oldest
paper in the State is SOL Miller, of the
Troy Chie," as he is known all over the
West
The Chief, established at White Cloud
in 1857, was a puny infant and crawled
but feebly for some time. In 1872 it was
removed to Troy, where it still remains,
and from whence it circulates as widely
as any country paper west of the Mis-
sissippi. Hundreds of Western papers
run Sol Millerisms' in every issue, and
Uncle Soils say" on all subjects is al
ways pointed and weighty. He, too, is
a man of meagre education, all that he
possesses coming from common schools,
attended before he was seventeen. To-
day the Chief is power and its editor
wealthy man.
Among the successful ones who began
in the early days may be mentioned Gen
eral Rice, of the Fort Scott Monitor J. K.
Hudson, of the Topeka Capital, and F.
P. Baker, of the Commonwealth; J. Stotler,
c.. v Eskridge, S S. Prouty, Marsh Muir
dock, J. V. Admire, G. W. Martin, and
others.
The story of the founding and rise of
the Hiawatha Messenger is almost pa
thetic 1t tells of the struggles of three
boys against odds that would have
daunted many an older heart. They were
all three under age, the Oldest being but
twenty, and the other two seventeen and
fifteen respectively.
liz ilItt W Hal lOA UlOtlClS HClC tuC
sons of poor parents, who were obliged
to retain them on the farm till each had
reached the age of fifteen. Then each
began his battle with the world, and a
brave battle it was in every case. Their
education, except that of the oldest,
Samuel R., who spent a few months at
the Kansas University, was limited to the
common schools and not an abundance
of time at those.
The two older brothers became print
ers, and, in the early part Of 1881, started
Job Office at Hiawatha. In the latter
part of the same year they took the tif-
een-year-old brother into partnership
and the three founded the Messenger.
No one encouraged or backed them.
Instead, they were opposed by two we'll
established and prosperous papers, that
left no stone unturned to keep them
down, and by almost the entire commu-
nity, who predicted speedy failure for
the ''babies,' as they calAd them.
Opposed by the political rings of all
parties, by all the business men who ex-
pected favors from their rivals, and by
the most bitter fight that the opposition
papers could possibly make, it has come
out ahead and patronage is flowing in
from all over Northwestern Kansas" So
says A. T. Andreas' history of Brown |
county in speaking of the Messenger
What makes the success of the boys !
more than ever to be wondered at is the
fact that they were opposed by one of
the most accomplished and versatile lit
erary men that Kansas ever produced,
and who, but for his untimely death,
would have rapidly climbed to position
where his fame would have been national.
The struggle was hard one, and often
the boys were almost on the point OF |
giving up in despair, but always their
bulldog determine ton conquered their
weakness and they went on toward the
goal of prosperity that they felt was be-
fore them Now the Messenger has the
largest circulation of any weekly in the
State, and is steadily adding to it. To-
day the ''boys," though boys no longer,
find themselves in position to look with
complacency back upon their desperate
but winning fight against odds. Kansas
would be almost a newspaper paradise
were it not for the fact that it is most
ou+roroouolu observation-disclosures |